Fear, not

The phrase is ubiquitous. “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt from his famous first inaugural speech in 1933, seeking to lift a nation’s collective psyche deep in the throws of the Great Depression. Who hasn’t heard this perhaps many times in their lifetime? But what is the context and what is the relevance today?

Well, I decided to find this out for myself so I found and read that inaugural address, having long since forgotten all the research I had once done as a lad on FDR, having decided in school that he was my favorite president. Included here is an execrpt from that speech. Listen to it here or read it online and you may find out for yourself that not only is it so relevant to this moment in our history, if not also profound, but that it also speaks to another ubiquitous phrase levied by his great counterpart across the pond, Winston Churchill, who admonished “Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”

Well my fellow Americans, we’ve gone and repeated ourselves…yet again. Whether or not we care to admit it, we’ve been in this place before; war and recession, difficult times, a deepening sense that things may get worse before they get better. A very real concern that our children will inherit a world far worse than the one we got to grow up in, where at this time their hope to do better than their parents is not a bright one; that when looked at from beyond the smoke and mirrors of the great Bush spin machine, they and we are seeing in real time the prophecies of science ringing true about global warming that yes, we very much have influenced since the onset of the industrial revolution.

But fear not people…really. Please for just once, fear not.

Fear has been the Super Size Happy Meal that has been stuffed down our throats 24 hours a day / 7 days a week and from every possible media outlet for these past eight years, and beyond, really. ‘The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming!’ ‘The markets are crashing, the markets are crashing!’ ‘Serial killers, rapists. ‘Run for the hills!’  Yes, all of these things have happened, are happening and will continue to happen. Of this we can be sure.

Yet when I would talk with outsiders, for example my uncle up in Montreal, he would always chuckle because looked at from a perspective outside our borders, he would ask, ‘where’s the fire? You Americans (he has dual citizenship but has been up there for almost thirty years) are all kuckoo with your news. Everything’s just going to hell down there if you dare watch TV or read the paper.’

I finally got a chance to gain a little perspective of my own regarding fear when we travelled to Italy in May of 2006. One night, while staying in Lucca, I couldn’t sleep so I watched TV in the hotel room with my wife (not at all what I would have preferred to be doing that night in romantic Italy but circumstances beyond our control dictated our activities, if you know what I mean). And I remember this show that seemed to go on forever about these Germans in the country with these property destroying gophers and they’re tearing up entire lawns and planting small bombs in futility to extract them. It was straight out of Caddy Shack. And it was also like watching grass grow. Then came the horrific Italian version of American Idol that was so completely over the top cheesy that it was almost entertaining. (It’s always fun to watch TV where you can’t understand a thing so you just tune in to facial expressions).

Finally, BBC news comes on (in English) and after several stories covering all the places in the world we never seem to care much about here, they turned to America in the world news. And it was, ‘Today in America, unseasonably warm weather covered the Northeast and is due to continue for at least two more days. And in other news, Manchester United defeated Chelsea 3-1. Back after this commercial break.’

And I’m like Wait a minute! Where’s the big story about Iraq and more suicide bombers? What about catching Bin Laden? Where is al Quaeda going to strike next? Nothing… nothing at all on the subject, save for a brief recap of some talks going on in Baghdad that day. And it dawns on me suddenly how totally immersed in fear we have all been through the dark ages of the Bush administration, while they quietly shat on our Constitution and proceeded to drive this country over a cliff, basically, if not right to the brink.

And no, I really don’t care to keep dwelling on the past failures of these last eight years in hell since there are far too many books out there already that have turned over most of these stones so many times that I can’t possibly add anything of substance, save maybe for this:

We can’t blame W and his failed administration for all our ills while they certainly own a fair portion of the reponsibility. After all, they’re gone now. Really gone. But regarding this incessant fear mongering the truth is that, beyond the RNC, Rush, Sean, Anne  & Company (can’t you just see them licking their chops? there’s another Democrat in the White House to blame for everything and he’s black too!) , the media is equally culpable if but a puppet of political forces unseen. But somewhere on high, it must have been decided long ago that death, destruction, despair, rape, school shootings, market collapses, storms of the century (translation: any form of precipitation beyond a gust, drizzle or flurry) all get big ratings. And these same folks must have also decided that things like great achievements, heroic gestures, successful pursuits; all things that are also happening each and every day around the country and the world, are not big ticket ratings winners. So how then do they continue to keep us sucked in to the vortex?

Fear. But why? you ask.

Well, we know why of course. Go back to the Romans, the Vatican, hell keep going back to the Pharoahs; let’s just include the better part of human existence in recorded history. OK. May as well throw in the entire animal kingdom, too.

Because fear keeps those in power staying in power and those that are not, beholden to them. You know Alpha and Omega? It’s a very old and successful recipe (for those in power).

But if the field has truly been leveled with the advent of the internet, blogging, social networks, and if the power has come back to the people (at least a little bit anyway) and if this digital revolution is being fought not with tanks and guns but with blogs, Twitters, mp3s, YouTube videos, URLs and IMs, then can we not exert a little influence here (David to the mighty mainstream media networks’ Goliath)? Could we not at least shed light on the positive goings on in the world every day as well, to balance with the perhaps more sobering “news of the day” that may show us the war, human suffering, and other global ailments that surely must be reported? It may just serve to remind us that every day brings good news along with the not so good news.

Imagine a world where the Rush’s and the Hannity’s and the Coulter’s with all their partison, self serving divisiveness, who sit perched in their little golden trees like fat pigeons shitting on Democratic society (translation: our American society, derived from the word democracy, I believe? not just the bleeding heart liberal blue state folks), were replaced by a new model who figured out how to highlight our common ground and that which is great and inspiring about humanity and still collect those fat paychecks (it’s easy if you try).

Maybe this all sounds very pie in the sky but surely there is something of substance and capable of high viewer ratings that the media can also show us that might actually inspire us to do better rather than run to Home Depot to pick up supplies to build our own Do-It-Yourself bomb shelters.

So go on out there today without the fear that you’ll step on a dirty bomb and render New York uninhabitable for a thousand years, or get bit by a mosquito with West Nile virus, or catch a life threatening strain of flu because you didn’t get your flu shot (sponsored of course by your favorite pharmaceutical co.) and go out there with a smile and try to do some good today. Your country will thank you and be the better for it.

P.S. If  you find something enlightening in this FDR speech, go read it in its entirety. You may find with facination that this has all been done and said before. And that we’re here again in this place because we still haven’t learned the lessons from our past mistakes. Or you may see in the absence of fear, in this moment and its parallels with FDR’s moment then, that we do have the ability to truly rise up in the face of adversity and do great things because this is what we are capable of when inspired by hope and driven by necessity to find answers where they didn’t exist before.

Peace,

Mark